With RFID, Restaurants Track the Time Sushi Sits Out

Have you ever dined at a sushi restaurant with a conveyor belt? Kaiten-style sushi, as it is called, moves around the restaurant on small plates so that guests can choose the single pieces of sushi they want.

There’s one problem, however. Sushi spoils easily, and it can be difficult for the restaurant’s staff to know how long a piece of sushi has been riding the conveyor belt.

Enter RFID. Restaurants in Japan and the United States have applied RFID tags to the plates on the sushi line. By interrogating the tags with a handheld reader, restaurant workers can collect valuable information such as what type of sushi is on each plate, when it was prepared and who prepared it. This type of information helps restaurant managers reduce waste by only preparing those types of sushi that are running low.

What’s more, diners enjoy their meal with the confidence that their sushi is supremely fresh.